BOWEN

Another interesting set of stories relates to my maternal grandmother's ancestors, John Maxwell and Emma Bowen. I have a picture of them and a glass plate with an inscription "Give Us Our Daily Bread" that my mother said was brought from Wales by Emma Bowen. Initially, I was unable to find an Emma Bowen, much less the correct Emma. However, one day I received 2 separate, but, as it turned out, related e-mail messages in response to a posting. One message stated that he, Tom Wanosik, was a child from the second marriage of a female ancestor who initially had been married to a Richard Bowen. This Richard died in a mining accident in Trumbull Co, Ohio. He had an obituary/letter that had been translated from the Welsh. I paraphrase it as: "Richard had 2 brothers, one was John, b 1822, and 4 sisters (no names given). They and their mother, a Mary Elizabeth Gohnen, came to American and settled in the Trumbull area. John and Richard's father had died 5/5/1832 and was buried in Wales, probably Glamorganshire. The fathers name was Owen John Bowen. Before Richard's marriage, he traveled to Kansas and met a Rev George Lewis and bought some land in 1857. Richard Bowen subsequently decided he did not want to move his aging mother so they returned to Trumbull, Ohio.” I believed that this Richard could be the brother of my John Bowen, as the age was within range and he was known to also be a coal miner.

The second e-mail message, from JoAnn Water, gave information related to a John O. Bowen who was born about 1826 in Glamorgan, Wales. This John married a Mary Lewis and had children, including a daughter named Emma. This information seemed to fit except for an inscription on a page from a family bible that I have. The inscription states "Emma Bowen, this book presented to her by Patrick Fowler, November 18, 1866. My dear daughter read & study this for your soul's salvation." Signed "John B. Bowen." I was bothered by the difference between the middle initials, "O" and "B," and the fact that this Emma was not born in Wales. However, further investigation uncovered and provided a copy of the probate record for Mary Bowen. It contained a copy of the will of Mary Bowen and the certification by witnesses. It showed that her mark was an "X", and that witnesses were identified, and included a certification that the will had been read to her. This told me that Mary could not read English. Since both Richard and John were miners, it is probable that they almost certainly could not read/write English, at least initially. Therefore, the bible inscription was probably written for John Bowen, and not by him, and I concluded that John could not have read what was written nor could he have agreed with the middle initial. I then recalled that the obituary notice was written in Welsh, their native language. After acknowledging these facts, I accepted the 2 e-mail messages as being applicable to my John Bowen and his daughter Emma. The fact that Richard knew a George Lewis and his brother, John Bowen is believed to have married a Mary Lewis is interesting, but not helpful since Lewis is a very common name, even more so than Bowen. Also my mother's belief was that Emma was born in Wales versus America can be rationalized since Emma is known to have lived only a short after the birth of her third child; therefore, her time with her children (e.g., Emma) may have been too short for her to pass on much of her family history and the children would have been too young to have remembered more than a general theme. Muddie, my grandmother who was the second child of Emma, was a very young girl when Emma is believed to have died.

I also learned that Bowen is a very common name. It comes from being a son of Owen. Therefore, a John who is a son of Owen becomes John Bowen. My John O. Bowen was probably John a son of Owen, aka John Owen Bowen. John Owen Bowen was name wife Mary used in her will to identify her late husband. Therefore, the middle initial should have been “O” and not the B found in my family bible.

I subsequently encountered birth records for children believed to be those of John Bowen and wife Mary. The mother was identified as Mary John. After a discussion with the Trumbull Co Archivist about these names, we both believe it is probable that Mary John may have been the widow Mary Lewis before she married John Bowen. Census records show that John Bowen and wife Mary were both born in Wales.